Desafinado Piano Tutorial

In this lesson we will examine one of the greatest pieces of music written by one of the greatest musical composers of all time.

The tune we are going to explore is "Desafinado" by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Newton Mendonça. They wrote a few songs together although Jobim received most of the credit for this composition.

The Story Behind The Song

The word "Desafinado" in Portuguese means "out-of-tune". When Jobim was writing this song, a lot of people criticised his music for sounding strange with the unconventional use of the altered tensions such as b5s, #11s, b9s, and b13s.

Jobim was pushing boundaries by incorporating these non-diatonic tones into his music and Jobim and Mendonça decided to write a tune with many of these unusual scale degree choices in the melody.

The whole composition is full of these ‘quirks’ which gives the tune a lot of character and personality.

A Full Arrangement & Accompaniment

Jovino breaks down the harmony, the melody, and creates a full arrangement for you to learn and play.

Jovino also provides an accompaniment to the tune that could be played under any lead instrument or singer.